Ivan Glasenberg

Ivan Glasenberg was born in South Africa and joined Marc Rich + Co (which became Glencore) in 1984, rising through the coal trading desk to become CEO in 2002. He was instrumental in transforming Glencore from a purely trading-focused house into a fully integrated commodity and mining company. The landmark event was Glencore's 2011 IPO, which was one of the largest flotations in history and made Glasenberg and his partners billionaires. He then orchestrated the $29 billion merger with Xstrata, a major mining company, creating one of the world's largest integrated commodity companies. Under his leadership, Glencore pursued an aggressive strategy of owning production assets to complement its trading operations, giving it unique market intelligence and supply chain control. He stepped down as CEO in 2021, leaving a dramatically transformed company.